160 Union Bay 



substantiate the sight record, and the taking, a few miles 

 south, of two specimens by a collector was additional con- 

 firmation. 



I was greatly interested, while checking the records, in 

 noting the attitude which many of the conservative ornithol- 

 ogists took toward the matter of range. It has always seemed 

 to me, and I think my view is substantiated by my observa- 

 tions, that range is often too flexible a thing to be outlined 

 by sections, counties, townships, or even states, and that no 

 man is in possession of enough facts to make the statement 

 that "the range of this bird is as follows," and then proceed 

 to outline it exactly. I submit that every statement of terri- 

 tory needs qualifying by some such phrase as "present in- 

 formation and records indicate a range as follows." In the 

 case of the Franklin gull, nearly every authority from the 

 time of the great Elliott Coues outlined a range which has 

 been progressively enlarged by succeeding writers who, in 

 turn, have had their arbitrary limits set aside by additional 

 information, so that when we come to the South American 

 marine bird authority, Robert C. Murphy, we find that he 

 has seen countless numbers of Franklin gulls off the shore of 

 the desert portions of Pacific South America— a prairie 

 plough-follower wintering in southern oceanic waters. 



I felt well repaid for my examination of the information 

 regarding the Franklin gull. I found that it is a highly re- 

 spected and welcome bird in the great wheat districts where 

 it follows the plough in huge flocks and sweeps down upon 

 the wealth of insect life upturned by the ploughing. It builds 

 colonies of nests in the marshes and at the edges of the 

 prairie lakes, using the reeds for a foundation and strength- 

 ening them against the normal winds and waves. It flies 

 about the plains and takes many grasshoppers on the wing— 

 a habit which is largely responsible for the esteem in which 

 the bird is held. Its home is normally on the prairies east of 

 the Rocky Mountains and reaches north into the wheat- 



